Moves and Views

1 Travelers Canada chief executive officer Brigid Murphy [1a] is retiring from CEO duties, chief operating officer (COO) Duane Sanders [1b] is replacing Murphy and Heather Masterson [1c], most recently with Totten Insurance Group Inc., is taking on the COO role. Masterson will join Travelers Canada September 14, reports The Travelers Companies Inc. She was appointed CEO of Totten Group in September 2012, replacing H. Ross Totten, who founded the wholesale brokerage a decade earlier. Masterson has also worked at Hub HKMB Ontario, American International Group Inc. and Colonial Fire and General Insurance Company. Murphy, who has almost 20 years working at Travelers Canada and The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, acquired by Travelers Canada in 2013, will now serve as vice chairman. With Travelers Canada since 2001, Sanders was named COO in January 2015.

2 Fred Plant [2a] has returned to helm the Canadian Independent Adjusters Association (CIAA). Plant’s employer, SCM Insurance Services Inc.’s ClaimsPro unit, announced that Plant has assumed his second term as CIAA president (his first time around was 2007-2008). His most recent predecessor was Albert Poon [2b], chief operating officer of Cunningham Lindsey Canada, who took on the role last September from David Porter. Porter, vice president, western for Granite Claims Solutions, resigned in August 2014 when SCM acquired the property and casualty businesses of Granite Global Solutions. At that time, ClaimsPro was not a CIAA member firm. President of Plant Hope Adjusters Ltd. until earlier this year, when the businesses was acquired by ClaimsPro, Plant is now the firm’s senior vice president, operations, Atlantic Canada.

3 Harsha Agadi [3a] has been appointed as Crawford & Company’s interim chief executive officer, replacing Jeffrey Bowman [3b]. “After nearly eight intense and challenging years as president and CEO, I have agreed with the board to step down,” says Bowman. Agadi, who sits on Crawford & Company’s Board of Directors, has also served as executive vice president and chief operating officer, global property and casualty for two years until his appointment as president and CEO in 2008. Bowman is chairman of GHS Holdings LLC and previously held roles as executive chairman of Quiznos LLC, CEO of Friendly’s Ice Cream LLC and CEO of Church’s Chicken.

4 Ontario Mutual Insurance Association (OMIA) has partnered with Kanetix Ltd. to provide consumers a way to obtain mutual auto insurance quotes from their smartphones, tablets and/or desktops. Consumers can get a quote from the OMIA website or from one of the 17 participating mutual insurance firms. These firms are Ayr Farmers Mutual, Dumfries Mutual, Germania Mutual, Hay Mutual, Howard Mutual, Howick Mutual, Kent & Essex Mutual, L & A Mutual, Lambton Mutual, North Kent Mutual, South Easthope Mutual, Town & Country Mutual, Townsend Mutual, Tradition Mutual, West Elgin Mutual, West Wawanosh Mutual and Westminster Mutual.

5 Evan Garner [5], a former vice president of Marsh Canada, is now Willis Canada Inc.’s commercial insurance director for Quebec. Willis Canada is “fully committed to re-emerging as a local risk management and insurance advisor in the province of Quebec,” says president and chief executive officer Brian Parsons. Garner’s responsibilities will include building Willis Canada’s property and casualty business to complement its group benefits, pension consulting and actuarial practices in Montreal, Willis Canada reports. While at Marsh, Garner worked with various industries, such as railways, retail and financial institutions.

6 Economical Insurance has announced chief risk officer Ed Berko [6] has left the company to pursue other endeavours. Philip Mather, the insurer’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, “will take on the accountabilities of chief risk officer on an interim basis, providing day-to-day support to the enterprise risk management function,” the company notes. Tracy Mann, vice president, operational risk oversight, “will be appointed interim chief compliance officer.” Before joining Economical Insurance in 2013, Berko had been chief risk officer and executive vice president at Protective Life Insurance Company and Protective Life Corporation.

7 Cunningham Lindsey Claims Services Canada Ltd. has launched Clarity Online, a risk management tool from the company’s third-party administration division, inTrust. “Clarity Online allows inTrust TPA clients to analyze claims data through customized formatting and reporting,” reports the company. Being able to provide trending analysis and forecasting will allow clients to accurately measure the performance on a global program, it adds.

8 Managing general underwriter K&K Insurance Group Inc. recently announced Joe Rodewald [8] is the new vice president and general manager of K&K Insurance Brokers Canada and Underwriting Solutions LP. Rodewald joined K&K Insurance in 2001 in its recreation division and later moved to the leisure division.

9 L’Alliance des caisses populaires de l’Ontario will be the 43rd member-owner of The Co-operators Group Ltd. as of October 1. L’Alliance des caisses populaires de l’Ontario provides administrative services to its members, which include financial services co-operatives in Alban, Bonfield, Hearst, Kapuskasing, Mattawa, Mattice, Noelville, North Bay, St. Charles, Sturgeon Falls, Timmins and Verner, The Co-operators reports.

10 SCM Insurance Services Inc.’s ClaimsPro unit is becoming a member of the Canadian Independent Adjusters’ Association (CIAA). Although ClaimsPro had not previously participated as a member of CIAA, “recent discussions with the CIAA executive have given ClaimsPro comfort that the CIAA is better aligned with its interests and will provide greater benefits for the industry and its members as a whole.”

11 Heather Gray [11] is now an equity partner in Clyde & Co.’s insurance group. Formerly with Gowlings, Gray has specialized in “issues affecting the insurance industry from provincial and federal regulatory matters and intermediary licensing to product design and development for insurers, agencies, brokerages, third-party administrators and service contract providers.”